Singapore: Day 30

Today was my 20th birthday, and it definitely felt strange celebrating it in a foreign country and without the company of my close friends and family. We were originally planning to go to the zoo during the day, but I wanted to work on my applications and workload. It may seem like a terrible way to spend a birthday, but the revelations I had last night definitely changed something within me.

I met with Nelson for a haircut shortly before my birthday celebrations began. I've been needing a haircut for a while, and it had been difficult to schedule one due to my general busyness. During this time, Laney and Emily walked into the lounge and gave me their presents: a slice of cake and letters spelling out "Clam." They are too sweet! After I had my haircut and cleaned myself up a bit, I met with Emily, Laney, James, Nicole, and Nelson at 6 PM and took the MRT to Raffles City Shopping Centre (Michael and Annette were to arrive to dinner later). We planned to eat at Din Tai Fung, an award-winning Taiwanese restaurant famous for its dumplings, and chose a location close to Clarke Quay so that we could go for drinks afterwards. At DTF, we ordered steamed pork dumplings, steamed vegetable and pork dumplings, steamed vegetable dumplings, stir-fried dou miao with garlic, stir-fried Hong Kong kailan with special sauce, steamed yam paste dumplings and were served a complementary red bean rice dumpling. The dumplings were delicious, and the yam paste dumplings in particular were pure happiness.

The dumplings are beautifully crafted.

Steamed vegetable and pork dumplings

"Queen of the dumplings"

Stir-fried Hong Kong kailan with special sauce

Stir-fried dou miao with garlic

Red bean rice dumpling

Steamed yam paste dumplings. Yum!

Group photo (minus Michael and Annette)

After dinner, we walked to Clarke Quay. We first made a stop at Azabu Sabo Hokkaido Ice Cream to grab dessert. I fell in love with this ice-cream when I first tried it after the AIC boat tour, and have been dying to reunite with my beloved. I was tempted to order the black sesame and green tea w/ chocolate flavors again because they were so delicious, but I decided to try something new. We sat along the Singapore River and enjoyed our ice-creams while gazing at the beautiful lights.

 

After our ice-cream escapade, we went to Aquanova at Clarke Quay for drinks. The bar had a comfortable atmosphere: it was dimly lit and had a live band playing music. Besides the AIC-organized gathering at One Altitude, this was the first time I ventured into a bar on my own accord. My newness to bars as well as my lack of experience with alcohol made it difficult for me to understand and choose a drink from the menu, but in the end, I settled on the Long Island Iced Tea. The drink didn't make an impression, because it simply tasted like alcohol and I am not fond of the taste of alcohol. At some point, we were writing music suggestions for the bank and Michael wrote on his sheet that it was my birthday. He was hoping for a shout-out from the band, but instead they called me upon the stage and demanded that I sing a song (or pole-dance... of course I chose to sing). I was shocked by the turn of events and honestly, I wanted to kill someone! After an embarrassing attempt at Christina Perri's "A Thousand Years", I was released from their hands and offered a free drink. I made the most of this opportunity, and ordered the most expensive drink on the menu: the Flaming Lamborghini. This was quite an exciting experience, because my drink was aflame and I had to finish it quickly before the alcohol became too hot and inedible.

It was my first official drinking experience, so I was unsure whether or not I consumed a large amount of alcohol. I had two drinks, but I still felt reasonable and coherent. This made me curious as to what my limit was and what it felt like to lose control. I was tipsy from the alcohol, but I was still able to fully control my mind and body. I will leave this question for future adventures with alcohol. We left at 11:30 PM, because we all had work the next day.... and this was how I celebrated my 20th birthday in Singapore. I will be celebrating it once (or twice) again with my friends once I return to the states. Can't wait!

Singapore: Day 29

On Saturday, Nicole, Emily, Laney, and I made a trip to the Jurong Bird Park. We met at 11 AM to make the journey to Boon Lay, and made a stop at Jurong East Mall at the Jurong East station for breakfast. The mall had a very nice food centre at the top floor; it was clean and aesthetically pleasing to say the least. I ordered the QQ La Mian from Zhen Neng Zhu Ban Mian and Fish Soup, and it was tasty (after all, who can go wrong with mian?) I am definitely enjoying the assortment of noodles here in Singapore.

QQ La Mian

We went back onto the MRT and took the train down to Boon Lay, where we boarded a bus that connected Jurong Point Shopping Mall to the Jurong Bird Park. We spent a couple of hours following the trail and sighting the diverse birds. It was a very hot day, and by the end of the walk, we were red and sweating. Here are some pictures from our explorations:

Balongong girls!

Penguins!

Majestic flamingos.

Saddle-billed stork

I call this "HTHT" (Heart to Heart Talk)

Is this love?

Another perfectly romantic bird moment

A male peacock courting a female

Cassowary, world's most dangerous bird

Ostrich

 After we explored the entirety of the bird park, we boarded the bus back to Jurong Point. Much to my glee, we rode a double-decker bus! I haven't ridden one since my stay in Hong Kong several years ago, and even then, I loved riding on the second story of these buses. It was simply magical. Once we were back inside the mall, we grabbed afternoon tea at the food court.

Jurong Point Shopping Mall

Singaporean breakfast set with tea, soft-boiled eggs, and kaya toast

It was my first time having this set, but I wanted to try it because it is popular here in Singapore. It was definitely an interesting meal, although I am not sure if I would order it again. We crack the soft-boiled eggs into the dish, and dip the kaya toast into the eggs. I've never had soft-boiled eggs, so the concept of dipping my toast in half-raw eggs irked me.

After our meal, we separated ways: Nicole and Emily headed back to PGP while Laney and I stayed to shop inside the mall. Jurong Point mostly had local brands, so it was fun to shop the Singapore styles. I bought a pair of yellow flats from Charles & Keith as well as a dress and shirt from a local brand. The shopping also allowed me to spend time alone and to collect my thoughts. I deeply enjoy shopping and walking alone, with my earphones plugged in and striding to the sound of the music, because it allows me to contemplate about life. I especially needed to do that today, because I have been having many conflicted thoughts and emotions as of late, and I needed to sort them. My psychological disturbances stemmed from my transition to the second decade of my life (it was my birthday the next day) as well as my growing sense of disconnect, loneliness, and lost. This year was an amazing year of self-discovery and growth and I was greatly saddened that I could not spend my birthday with the ones who shaped me during this strenuous time. My friends and mentors have been such a huge part of my life, yet I was spending my birthday with new friends who did not know my history and struggles (yet.) While I was thinking this, I began to recount the many things I was thankful for, the amazing actions that others have done for me. I wouldn't be here if it weren't for them, and it is because of them that I am finally okay. This was such a powerful moment, and I found myself walking back to PGP in tears. This moment gave me confidence in my 20 years of age and motivated me to be honest, understanding, and giving in all occasions. It was the perfect awakening.

Singapore: Day 28

On Friday, we had class as usual. Before we made our way to class, we ate the food we packed from the talk yesterday for breakfast. There is one kitchen per floor, and it is well-furnished with a refrigerator, stove, oven, mini-oven, cabinets, and a kitchen table; it was my first time eating in this area, and I enjoyed the family-style breakfast I had with Emily, Nicole, and Laney. Because of a conglomeration of issues (such as the haze and scheduling problems), the past two field-trips were postponed, which made today our first official field-trip. We were to go to the Parliament House, and this entailed dressing formally. In relation to class, Prof Tan finished his three lectures last week and Prof Straughan took over today. Her lecture covered the total fertility rate, which I had already learned about in last night's talk, but in more depth and with less connection to Singapore's position in the world. It was interesting, but she powered through her 3 hour lecture without any breaks. I have a short attention span and can barely sit through a one hour lecture without squirming, so by the half mark of Prof Straughan's lecture, I was delirious (perhaps this is too strong of a world, but my point comes across.) After lecture, we grabbed food at the canteen; I wasn't too hungry after our large breakfast, so I ordered a dragon-fruit juice.

Purple beauty

Afterwards, we headed to the Central Library to print out our Thailand flight tickets as well as our Groupon deals (our pot-pie and manicure/pedicure deals). Our field-trip to the Parliament House was divided into two groups. I was in the second group, so those in the first group left earlier while I stayed in the library to do work. After a half hour of restlessness and inefficient work, I returned to PGP to drop off my laptop as well as finish off the remainder of the food from yesterday's talk.When I left to take the campus bus back to the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences buildings, I bumped into other UC Berkeley students in the second group, so we made our way to the room together. After everyone had arrived to the meeting point, we took a chartered bus to the Parliament House. None of the other Balongongs were in my group (plus Angelo was in Hong Kong at this time), so it gave me the opportunity to interact with others from the Berkeley group.

Entrance to the Parliament House

I am not one that is interested in politics, but it was interesting hearing about Singapore's government. I cannot say much else besides note the complicated formalities and procedures of their government. Also, the ruling party, the People's Action Party, has been in power for many years and there is no check against them, while in the U.S. there are so many checks for power. Perhaps this explains the strong control of the government.

After the field-trip, we took our charter bus back to PGP, and I quickly showered and got ready for our outing. We made plans earlier that week to attend the Baybeats, which was a free concert featuring local bands. It was a great way for us to learn more about the local music scene as well as have fun on a Friday night. We grabbed dinner close-by at the food centre at Marina Square. I went to the Korean food stall, and ordered the mixed rice, which was essentially bibimbap. It was not very authentic in my opinion. The sauce was something similar to chili sauce, and the kimchi was spicier and not as good. Despite these remarks, the meal overall was quite good. It satisfied my cravings for Korean food.

"Mixed rice" a.k.a. bibimbap

After dinner, we went to Esplanade Theaters on the Bay for the Baybeats concert.

Here are some shots from the concerts:

My favorite band of the night: Hightime Rebellion (Indonesia)

Froya

Around 10 PM, we decided to grab dessert from Gluttons Bay. I ordered the cheng tng (no, that is not a typo), which is a Chinese herbal dessert. It reminded me of a herbal soup my mother made at home, but when I took a bite of the ingredients and tasted the stark bitterness, I resolved that cheng tng did not taste as good as my mother's herbal soup.

We're back, Gluttons Bay!

Cheng tng

After our brief break (as well as reunion with James, who joined us later), we listened to a South Korean rock band. This band was very different from the stereotypical Korean boy band, and the lead singer's hair deeply disturbed me.

 When the concert ended at 11 PM, we were tempted to stop by somewhere for a bite (James wanted to try kaya toast), but in the end we took the MRT back home. The MRT shuts down at midnight, so thankfully we made it back to PGP in time. 

Singapore: Day 27

On Thursday, I had more than 6 hours of sleep! It felt wonderful and refreshing, because I had not had that much sleep for a very long time. I continued my own independent work at lab today.

Everyone originally made plans to go bowling today, but I opted out for the Singapore Spotlight Talk later that evening. I enjoy attending talks and learning about the tensions and solutions of a society. Perhaps it is an interest cultured by my attendance for the World Affairs Council when I was in high school, but either way I am heavily interested in world affairs. The talk was titled "Population, Foreign Labour and Liveability-- Singapore's Future" and delivered by Professor Paulin Straughan, the professor for our sociology seminar. The talk started at 6 PM and took place at University Town (which is quite a distance from PGP), so I left work a little bit earlier to buy pastries as well as make the journey over to UTown. I fell in love with the black sesame pastry from yesterday's dinner, so I stopped by the Smith Street Food Centre on the way home from work to purchase two more black sesame pastries, a sweet green bean pastry, and a salty green bean pastry. I did not end up leaving early enough to accommodate both the pastry adventure as well as the trip to UTown, so Emily and I ended up arriving a few minutes late into the talk. When we first saw the room and its deficiency in attendees, we were hesitant to enter, but in the end I am very glad we did. The talk was extremely interesting, and I found it amazing that the fertility rate could have such a huge impact on a society. Singapore has a low total fertility rate, which has a huge impact on population, foreign labor, the Singapore economy, the workforce, etc. The solution to the problem may be to increase the fertility rate, but there are so many underlying factors to it such as gender relations, the traditional role of women at home, modernization, etc. It was a riveting talk, and I asked questions about the role of adoption in the fertility rate as well as the acceptance of abortion in Singaporean society. Surprisingly, abortion is legal in Singapore because, as said by Prof Straughan, "we protect our women." Men can easily leave the situation, while women are stranded with a child, which is why Singapore allows for abortion. I admire Singapore's dedication to equality, from the legal status of abortion to the female-friendly approach to increase the TFR.

After the talk, we trickled outside for refreshments. These refreshments turned out to be a full-fledged dinner, much to our surprise. We were grateful for the delicious food, because we had either skipper or had small dinners, and it was wonderful to eat in the company of other professors and professionals.

After we finished our food, we brought several boxes back to PGP for tomorrow's breakfast.  There was plenty of food left over, and the professionals urged us to not waste the food and bring it home (Singapore allows food to be out for a certain amount of time, and afterward restaurants must throw away their food.) Because it was getting late, Prof Straughan gave us a ride back to PGP in her car; it was my first and only time riding a personally owned car in Singaporea! It was truly an amazing and educational night!

Singapore: Day 26

Today was another long day at work. I will try not to include details of my work life-- it is quite monotonous in that I run the same protocol for an unbearable number of genes and cell lines. Well, after I first finish normalizing with GAPDH of course, whenever that may be. It is a bit annoying having to tweak the odd expression by adding an extra 0.1 micro-liter of DNA, only to find it over-expressed, then to at last found it under-expressed. However, I will get through this soon enough!

I was jealous of the attendees of the ASTAR conference; Emily, Laney and Janes intern at ASTAR and they had a conference full of exciting science talks and delicious food while I played around with GAPDH. Science and food, what else do you need in life?  Thankfully, James saved me a couple of sweets (my favorite being the cheesecake), which satisfied my long-lasting craving for Western sweets. I have been craving cheesecake for weeks but my less-than-ideal experience with the blueberry cheese has made me hesitant to buy Western sweets again. The cheesecake from the conference was perfect though and I was immensely happy.

At 6 PM, we all met up for dinner in Chinatown. Many have told me that the food in Chinatown is amazing, so I was excited to finally have a meal there. Once Angelo, Emily, Laney, Nelson, Nicole, and I assembled at the MRT entrance facing Pagoda Street, we headed to Smith Street Food Centre (Angelo and Nelson work in Chinatown, so thankfully they know most of the food places in the area.)

Pagoda Street, Chinatown

Smith Street Food Centre

After wandering around the large centre, I decided on chee cheong fun and soon kueh. The woman serving the foods was very hospitable and explained what soon kueh was. Our conversation took place in Cantonese, which added a layer of familiarity. She even gave me a free sample of turnip cake! Now onto my dinner. Chee cheong fun is a Cantonese dish as well as one of my favorite foods, so I definitely wanted to try it in Singapore. For those that are unfamiliar with Cantonese foods, chee cheong fun is a thin roll of rice noodle and eaten with soy sauce and hot sauce. Soon kueh was foreign to me as well, but according to the web it is a steamed Chinese dumpling made of rice flour skin with chopped turnips strips in the inside. Both were very interesting for comparison, because back at home, my mother would make chee cheong fun and dumplings for a Chinese style breakfast. At home, I ate chee cheong fun with soy sauce, but the Singaporean chee cheong fun was served with sweet dark soya sauce and chili paste. Both the chee cheong fun and the soon kueh had the same dressings, which doubled the overwhelming sweetness of the entire meal. I have a huge sweet tooth, and even I could barely handle the puddles of sweet soya sauce combined with the sweet turnips inside the soon kueh. It was indeed overpowering, and I felt as though I could never eat sweets again. 

Chee cheong fun

Soon kueh

Of course, my initial conclusion turned out to be false because a few minutes later I found myself standing before one of the bakeries at the food centre. Who can resist? 

Perfection

I am a huge lover of black sesame, so I could not escape the lull of the black sesame bun. I purchased one black sesame bun (for now) to enjoy for tomorrow's breakfast. The bun was extremely tasty and soft. The entire bread was flavored with black sesame, and the filling was also black sesame and included walnuts. It is definitely the best bread I’ve had so far, and I can’t wait to go back to buy more! The meal was immensely filling. After dinner, we headed back to PGP and separated ways. I continued working on my applications, but I headed to bed a bit earlier because I was tired. 

Singapore: Day 25

Today, I finally achieved independence! Jian Xiang now leaves me alone to my own work, and I can mill about the lab without his suspicion. I am currently running RT-PCR with GAPDH (a housekeeping gene) and altering the amounts of the HCC DNA so that expression levels for GAPDH would be constant against all HCC cell lines. This is to normalize gene expression data so that it is reliable and accurate. I can't wait to finish this initial step and move onto the bulk of the project! Today was also a day of compliments. The PI visited our lab and commented to the others, "Christine's fairly independent huh?" while the postdoctoral fellows complimented me in Mandarin. I could not catch much of it because I can not understand Mandarin, but I believe they were discussing my intelligence and work ethic. Of course, my ego felt warm and fuzzy after having such a good day in the lab, but it was destroyed when I made the mistake of leaving my materials out on the bench.  It was my first mistake yet, and by the time I realized it, I was already on the MRT at Harbour Front station. I quickly rushed back to NCCS to place the DNA, Master Mix, and primers back into the -20 degree Fahrenheit fridge. At this point, I had wasted a sufficient amount of time and by the time I arrived back to PGP, it was 7:30 PM. I missed dinner with the others once again and we planned to meet downstairs in the lounge at 9 PM, so I only had a short time window to eat. Thankfully, I brought food home from the NCCS Meeting and I was able to microwave it for dinner. The food was not the best, but at least I satisfied my need for food!

Once we were downstairs, we booked our hostel for Thailand. I can't believe the trip is already coming up!

Singapore: Day 24

Monday was a tiring day. I overslept, and as a result arrived to work around 10:45 AM. After a long day of experiments, I got off of work a bit after 6:30 PM.  I missed dinner with everyone at Chinatown, so I grabbed a meal at Just Acia with Emily, who also left work late. Just Acia has definitely been my go-to spot for meals. It is nice and quiet, and serves good food as well as a free flow of drinks and ice-cream. It really helps me unwind. I ordered the spicy cheese ramen set, which came with a pseudo-kimchi and edamame. I also tried the machine version of teh tarik (a.k.a. pulled tea); it was delicious but still incomparable to the pulled tea I had at Zam Zam!

Spicy cheese ramen set at Just Acia

 After dinner, we returned to our rooms and continued our work. My days in Singapore have entered a lull of work, dinner, and homework amidst dreadful applications and insufficient sleep. Despite this, I am loving my time here!

Singapore: Day 23

On Sunday, I went to bed at 7 AM because I stayed up late working on applications, my Reach the World articles, and my homework assignments. Since coming to Singapore, I've broken my previous record of functioning on 5 hours of sleep every night. Now I can sleep 4 hours a night and still function in my research lab, interact with friends, and complete my assignments and readings at night, all without caffeine. The human body is very peculiar, yet amazing. However, because I stayed up so late, I was extremely tired in the morning and could not make it to the Tree Top Walk with Emily and Laney. The Tree Top Walk is a suspension bridge that overlooks forest reserves, and it would've been such an amazing sight! I was sad that I could not experience the walk, but I had to finish my work (after all, I had my first deadline for RTW the next day). I did have the chance to escape from my work and join them for dinner. We made a trip to Holland Village and looked around for a food place. A section of Holland Village (in the picture below) is dedicated to foreign foods (Mexican, American, Thai, etc) but it is much pricier, so we went to the hawker centre down the street.

 I ordered a wanton noodle dish, while Laney and Emily ordered Western food. The dish was quite disappointing: the portion was small and the food was cold and not fresh. Laney and Emily also seemed to be similarly disappointed, as the Western food was not truly Western (as expected, of course.)

After dinner, we made our way back to PGP. I thoroughly enjoy the fact that the Holland Village MRT is lined with many snacks places such as Mr. Bean and Old Chang Kee. We stopped by Mr. Bean for the usual warm soya milk at 25% sugar and pancake. So far, I have tried the tuna and kaya pancakes, and I decided to try something new by ordering the egg mayo pancake. I wasn't very fond of the egg mayo (it was a strange combination of salt, sweet, and sour) but I will continue exploring the other flavors.

A picture of my delicious post-dinner dessert!

After dinner, we headed to our respective rooms, and I continued with my assignments.

Singapore: Day 22

Today, I woke up in the afternoon again. I was feeling quite disoriented, as many thoughts and emotions preoccupy my mind. I had an uncomfortable realization recently-- I pride myself in being detached from my childhood circumstances, but I think that I may not be detached from being American. I value independent and unbound existence, so I was disappointed in the fact that I was defined by my setting. I've also been questioning my identity, as I normally define myself by my academics, passion for science and helping others, pursuit of a meaningful existence, and my journey for understanding. In Singapore, all these traits are unrecognized or not valued, which is why in a sense I feel that I am not being recognized. Perhaps that is why I am disoriented, and I must re-define myself in order to feel more alive in this new home.

After I became presentable, I headed to Just Acia, an Asian Fusion restaurant inside the medical school. I ordered the deep fried dory with melted cheese on rice set, which came with a free flow of drinks and ice-cream. The meal was unhealthy, considering that I consumed large quantities of cheese, mayonnaise, milk tea, and ice-cream, but it was one that I thoroughly enjoyed. I must come back here again for another meal!

Rice dish, soup, pickled cabbage, ice-cream, and milk tea

After spending five hours in this restaurant, I went to NUH to grab popiah to snack on later. I must finish these applications soon and continue sending out emails to international service organizations, SASE, and research labs. My first deadline for Reach the World is also coming up on Monday, so I must complete that as well as my class assignments and readings for the week and more papers for my research lab. So much to do, but so little time!

Singapore: Day 21

On Friday, PSI levels jumped to 400+. We still had class in the morning, but our afternoon field trip to the waterway and Punggol was canceled because of the terrible haze. In class, we learned about Singapore's political system; it was definitely educational and I agreed with Singapore's movement toward greater democracy. It is interesting how the United States and Singapore are so different in terms of political systems. As an American, I can conditioned to believe in freedom, be it freedom of speech, freedom of religion, or the freedom to bear arms, so when I came to Singapore I was surprised and a bit disturbed by the tight regulation by the Singaporean government. During the lecture, the professor brought up an interesting question: is democracy effective? The United States can never seem to make a decision due to disagreements between the parties, while Singapore is effective and efficient in all aspects. However, there is a lack of freedom and participation in Singapore and what seems to be an atmosphere of dispassionate acceptance among the citizens. There are definitely trade-offs to the systems, and it's difficult to decide which one is "better."

Group photo to commemorate our battle against pollution!

After class, a group of us made a trip to Bugis to watch Monsters University. Our showing was at 4:35 PM, so we grabbed lunch and wandered the mall. The food inside the mall is quite expensive (usually $10+ for a small meal), but we finally decided on a less expensive restaurant, the Laksania. I ordered the Sarawak Laksa, and it might be the best laksa I had so far!

Sarawak laksa

We quickly finished our meal and headed to the arcade to kill time. On the top floor of Bugis is an elaborate game area with an arcade, stores with reserve-able game rooms, a section dedicated to League of Legends, and more. Gamers can definitely spend their lives here.

After wandering the arcade for a bit, Emily and I left the others to explore the mall. We visited a few stores, and met up with Laney, Nicole, and Angelo again for the movie. Interestingly, the theater mostly showed American movies, and despite being in Singapore, we were still connected to the United States. It is impossible to escape the influence of the U.S.! The movie rooms were smaller, but definitely much nicer: the seats were softer and of higher quality, the sound system was better, and the room was generally cleaner and newer. Instead of being dubbed, the movie was shown with Chinese subtitles, which was definitely something I was unused to seeing on the big screen. The movie itself was interesting and nostalgic, because the Monsters University campus was based on UC Berkeley's campus and thus we were reminded of home. The movie also made me a bit uncomfortable, as it addressed controversial themes such as student code of conduct violations, expulsion, fraternity life and parties, and the not-so-admirable aspects of university life in general. I was a bit upset by the ending, because the movie conveyed that it was okay to make such an enormous mistake. In reality, when an individual is expelled from university, he or she suffers a permanent mark on the transcript and is turned away from job opportunities and re-acceptance into any university. However, the main characters Mike and Sul were still able to accomplish their dreams of being scarers, which I thought to be completely unrealistic, inaccurate, and unjust. Life is not that easy! Other than that, the movie was enjoyable and a good change from the darker and more philosophical movies I generally watch. After the movie, we headed back to PGPR and re-congregated for dinner half an hour later. Because of the pollution, we stayed away from hawker centres and instead chose a nearby indoor restaurant, Fermosa Delights. The restaurant specialized in Taiwanese food, and I ordered the chicken bamboo rice. My dish reminded me of a similar rice dish I had whenever I went for dimsum with my family and friends, so this may have been the Taiwanese variation of it.

After dinner, we headed back to PGPR and showered. We met up again in the lounge to discuss our travel plans and purchase our plane tickets. A couple of us are visiting Phuket, Thailand for a weekend getaway; I am definitely excited about this trip, because I have never been to Thailand before! The cost was a stone to the heart, but I want to see more of the world while I still have this opportunity. I am still looking into other countries to visit during my stay in Asia... there are too many places I want to visit!